Driver8 wrote:
F14D_Tomcat wrote:
Driver8 wrote:
However, rear wheel drive is definitely not so good when you're going down a slightly downhill, curving side street that's covered in compacted snow and ice, and both sides of the road are lined with parked cars!
The auto 'box means no engine braking to speak of, and while the DCS and traction control do what they can (which usually is more than enough to get you out of trouble), there's nothing you can when all 4 wheels let go!
Surely, you mean DSC D8 :wink
Also, auto boxes are manual as well for BMW these days. It's just a habit, I use it all the time and it really is fun, even in winter conditions. And for those with paddles, it is even more interesting.
Yes I did mean DSC. The typeo was a product of quick typing! Just like I often end up typing "teh" instead of "the" all the time!
While my 550 has the *ahem* "manual mode" on the auto box, I personally find it to be completely rubbish because it never holds the gear for more than a few seconds if the system doesn't think it's the optimal gear to be in.
I've also got the paddles and they're just as bad as they're just an extention of the same system. I only ever use them for overtaking, and even then I find it's considerably more effective to just stick it in Sport and bury your foot in the carpet. The auto system is intelligent enough to get the best results.
The other thing that really p*sses me off with the hopeless sequential manual on the auto box is that
occasionally it decides to actually hold a gear for no apparent reason, even when usually it will shift for you even in the alleged "manual" mode as I mentioned above. This caught me out massively a couple of weeks ago - I came up to a big fast motorway slip-road roundabout, and expected the manual to shift down to second as it always does when the nanny-computer thinks it knows best
. So there I am, and I spot a gap that'd be more than enough under normal circumstances but when I put my foot down it crawls away like a 1.2 Micra! Why? Because rather than changing down as it ALWAYS does, the system had decided to leave the manual gearbox in 4th.
Cue me absolutely bricking it as 3 lanes of traffic bear down on me before I realise that, for once, the manual is actually behaving like a manual and expecting me to do something!!
Obviously it was primarily my fault for a) leaving it in manual in the first place, and b) not checking it or shifting down myself as I came up to teh roundabout, but it's still pretty hopeless when the system is inconsistent.
I should say that I love BMW's and that's all I've driven for years, but IMO they should leave the current manual mode on the auto box on the shelf. Either do away with it completely, or make it a true manual - in other words, no computer intervention in that mode. The current halfway house is frankly rubbish.
Well, if I may D8:
Driver8 wrote:
The other thing that really p*sses me off with the hopeless sequential manual on the auto box is that occasionally it decides to actually hold a gear for no apparent reason, even when usually it will shift for you even in the alleged "manual" mode as I mentioned above.
It has happened at me too and it does need some adapting. The gearbox is what is called adaptive, which means that it adapts to your kind of driving. So, if it kept a gear, there was reason. Maybe you've done the same process some secs or mins before and the gearbox kept that in memory saying. aha, he's overtaking again or he's still going down that slope, so it keeps the gear in order not change without a reason or allow you to keep high revs instead of changing and change again if you use the kick-down, for example.
Also, if you're not the only one driving the 550i, then it also keeps the other driver's driving mode in memory as well. This is also something your dealer can show you, on the tester.
Driver8 wrote:
Obviously it was primarily my fault for a) leaving it in manual in the first place, and b) not checking it or shifting down myself as I came up to teh roundabout, but it's still pretty hopeless when the system is inconsistent.
When you're in manual mode, especially manual and sport mode, you can ALWAYS override manual by kick-down, even though it will always, as well, go back to manual when you're done with, say, your overtaking. But true, when it is in manual, well it is manual, and it does not behave like when it is in auto. It will stay at the gear you've put it in except for the protection mode, that is if it estimates that the engine is in harm's way. In that case, it will use the gear it judges best for the situation. For example, if you've chosen 4th gear and you want to drive up a steep road fully loaded, it will automatically downshift. Or, if you're at 180 km/h and want to downshift to 3d gear, the gearbox won't until the revs are lowered.
That being said, I did face some cocky situations like the ones you've described myself but I have an "old" E39 540iA and things should have been much better with your 550i. Maybe the new totally electrical gearshift has corrected those problems. But I have not driven one long enough to find out myself yet (my other 2 BMWs being manual).
Now, I've been into BMWs for the last 40 years and I know that I'm biased but IMHO it is the best you can find around. And all I mentioned before, I did so very humbly and from personal experience, I would never patronize you or anything else. And I'm glad you're a member of the club.
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